Vibratory tumblers are often used to clean and polish firearm casings for reloading. Typically, a batch of casings is placed in a vibratory tumbler with an abrasive or polishing media. The tumbler vibrates the casings so that the casings rub against each other and the abrasive or polishing media. The contact between different casings and between the casings and the media removes dirt, grease, lubricants, powder stains, and/or tarnish from the casings.
FIG. 1A is a front elevational view of a conventional vibratory tumbler 1 in accordance with the prior art. The vibratory tumbler 1 includes a base 10, a motor plate 30 movably attached to the base 10, a motor (not shown) rigidly attached to the motor plate 30, a bowl 50 removably attached to the motor plate 30, and a lid 90 removably attached to the bowl 50. The motor plate 30, the bowl 50, and the lid 90 are coupled together with a rod that extends through the bowl 50. Specifically, the rod has a first end attached to the motor plate and a second end attached to the lid. The motor is a vibratory motor that vibrates the motor plate 30, which in turn vibrates the bowl 50 and the casings within the bowl 50. Because the base 10 is attached to the motor plate 30 with a plurality of springs, the base 10 does not vibrate with the motor plate 30 and the bowl 50.
FIG. 1B is a schematic side cross-sectional view of the bowl 50 in FIG. 1A. The bowl 50 includes a base 52, a wall 70, and a protrusion 64 projecting from the base 52. The protrusion 64 includes a through hole 66 for receiving the rod that couples the motor plate 30 (FIG. 1A), the bowl 50, and the lid 90 (FIG. 1A) together. The protrusion 64 projects to nearly the top of the bowl 50 to prevent liquid media from spilling out of the bowl 50 via the hole 66.
The conventional vibratory tumbler 1 has several drawbacks. First, the tumbler 1 is a bulky device with a large height or profile. As a result, the tumbler 1 is expensive to ship because shipping rates are based in part on the volume of a package. Second, it is difficult to pour the used abrasive or polishing media from the bowl 50 into a container without spilling the media. The used abrasive or polishing media typically carries bullet lube, polish, powder residue, and dirt that can soil or damage clothing and other objects. This problem is particularly acute in applications in which the media includes a liquid. Third, the bowl 50 is typically made of a polymeric material that is not suitable for use with some abrasive media. As a result, conventional tumblers may not be used in some particularly abrasive deburring processes. Accordingly, there exists a need to improve conventional vibratory tumblers.